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CPR Gardens

One cannot overestimate the importance of the CPR to western Canada. A hundred and forty years later, in the light of energy security and sustainability, the benefit of rail over roads is being reconsidered. In the discussion of unbuilt projects for Calgary, we could include no-longer built projects that exist only in photographs or drawings and that, if considered today, would set Calgary off in a new direction. One such project is the block east of the CPR station that, until the 1930s, was taken up by a large market garden. Photographs show beds of cabbages, beans, and potatoes, bordered with pinks and marigolds, and gravelled paths lined with young fruit trees. Today, it reminds one of the agriponicos of Cuba, where fruit and vegetable production now covers almost all open space in Cuba’s cities, including the grounds of disused factories, parks, and parking lots, producing several million tons of food per year. This is food security, and it is as important in the twenty-first century as energy and water security.

Were the CPR gardens simply demonstration projects, or did they provide food for the railway? One suspects the latter, with surplus distributed amongst CPR employees. This was an urban landscape before the industrialization of food supply, and because of that it offers a template for a more sustainable future. An ongoing debate about Calgary’s steady expansion into surrounding farmland concerns the displacement of agriculture in favour of low-density housing development. It is possible that allotments, very much in favour in inner-city communities such as Hillhurst and Inglewood, might reinstate intense local food production, such as that seen with Vancouver’s 2003 Food Action Plan for rooftop gardens, community gardens, farmers’ markets, coordinated food processing, and distribution facilities for low-income citizens. The surprise was to find that this was a reality initiated by what was then corporate Calgary, a century ago.

Figure 2-1. These are the gardens to the east of the CPR station, on 9th Avenue. Vegetable plots are set out in formal parterres edged by flowering borders. We take for granted the provisioning of passenger trains, not thinking that in the 1890s food would have been gathered along the route, non-perishables warehoused, fresh meat and stored vegetables — or in-season fresh fruit and vegetables — picked up at each station. Pat Burns provisioned the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway as it was being built, and this was the basis of his fortune.

Topley Studio / Library and Archives Canada / PA-026186.